FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of the salient components of a telecommunications system in accordance with the illustrative embodiments of the present invention. Telecommunications system 100 comprises: public switched telephone network (PSTN) 105, private branch exchange (PBX) 120, cellular network 150, and five telecommunications terminals: wireline telephones 110-1 and 110-2, cordless telephone 130, wireless telephone 160, and two-way pager 170. As shown in FIG. 1, PSTN 105 comprises central office 190; in addition, private branch exchange 120's antenna 125 communicates wirelessly with cordless telephone 130's antenna 135, and cellular network 150's antenna 155 communicates wirelessly with wireless telephone 160's antenna 165 and two-way pager 170's antenna 175.
In the prior art, a telecommunications terminal typically alerts the user to the arrival of an incoming message via some sensory mechanism; most commonly, this mechanism is an acoustic “telephone ring.” In some instances (for example, when the user is busy) the user may refuse an incoming message; in the prior art, the user typically refuses a message by ignoring the sensory alert, or alternatively, usually in the case of a wireless terminal, powering down the terminal.
These techniques are very crude, however, as the user is not provided with any information about the message (except, in the case of terminals supporting “caller id,” the identity of the sender). Furthermore, systems in the prior art generally lack an automatic facility for letting a user request an alternative delivery mechanism for the message (e.g., email, text chat, short message service (SMS), voice mail, etc.) and informing the sending party of this request. Finally, systems in the prior art may present the sending party with the option to leave a recorded message or be forwarded to an operator after a message has been refused; however, such systems generally do not present the sender with any additional, more sophisticated options (e.g., sending another message via another delivery mechanism, another device, etc.) Therefore, the need exists for a more sophisticated mechanism for intelligently handling message refusals.